Judgement
by jarec
Summary: Transcribed from Hunter-Net. the story of an Avengers shift to Judge


_Dedicated to the Late Pope John Paul II. I may not be christian, but he was a damn fine man._

_I own nothing_

_The following is a transcription from Hunter dot net. For your convenience the typical chat short hand (i.e u, w, tho…) have been made more formal._

Gungrrl21: The monsters are signs of a sickness. You don't kill a disease by killing each germ individually. You gotta wipe 'em all out to get rid of the plague.

mrgone: How long you been Hunting?

Gungrrl21:

mrgone:Don't be shy. Ain't no one here gonna mock ya. We all had to start somewhere.

Slammer22: yeah

Iamsam11: hey man, it ain't right toa ask that kinda thing here. What next you gonna ask her about her imbuing

Mrgone: shut up Iamsam, I know you, and you been Hunting 5 years without getting a damn thing. gungrrl, I'm asking because you sound young.

Gungrrl21: I guess I am. I only started last year

Gungrrl21:But I'm doing better than Iamsam11! I already killed a leech, 3 mages, and 2 fairies!

Slammer22: LOL

Iamsam11: Hey, bitch, I stook up for you.

Mrgone: I wont question the leech but what about the others. What were they dong when you got em.

Gungrrl21: The mages were sittin around a warehouse, on the floor all cross legged the fairies were dancin around throwin balls at each other

Slammer22: Oh damn!

Icequeen: trgger happy rookie

Mrgone: sounds to me like you managed to kill 3 meditating zen-mages and 2 kiddy-fairies, as dangerous and evil as Mr Rogers.

Mrgone: Congrats.

Slammer22: shit, man, those're Pooka. They're annoying as hell but damn funny, and mostly harmless!

Gungrrl21: harmles! Theyre MONSTERS! Kill em all + let god or satan sort em out! Whatre you guys some judges or somethin'? Gonna wait til they've killed someone?or maye you're redeemers, wanna get all cuddly with em after they kill someone!

Slammer22: Im a redeemer and you're an idiot. Ony reason I don't Hunt YOU is maybe you can be redeemed too.

Mrgone: im a judge. I'll even tell you why. It was about seven years ago, I had been a Hunter for about a year, same as you. Same as you, I was an avenger, out to kill everything in the world that wasn't human. I emember how simple things looked to me back then. You had the monsters, who were all evil, and the human who were basically good. Its weird, but looking back, I don't remember ever believing Humans were 'basically good' before picking up my Hunting career. I gues once you've looked Evil in the face, you have a hard time seeing shades of gray for a while. Anyway. At that time I was following up reports of changers who'd attacked a small city. Tore up a lot of property, mainly the new mine, an orphanage and the hospital, then vanished. I drove down in my truck. It's a beauty, by the way, a moving truck. The cargo areas been renovated into a basic living area/HQ, with heat, AC, and even wireless Internet. Its where I'm writing from, now. Since you're just starting, I'll give you some free advice. Stay mobile. If They - vampires, werewolves, bad fairies, wizards, or the Men in Black know where you are, they can get you whenever they want.

Gungrrl21: yeah yeah. Just get on with the story ok?

Mrgone: ok ok. So I drove into town about a day later. Now we all know the furballs attack industry the most. Factories, lumberyards, and espescially mines. So the mine attack was no real surprise. The hospital and orphanage were. First, it broke with known werewolf patterns. Second, it was deep in the city, and they generally don't like it there. So I wasnt too sure what to expect. Maybe they were crazies, or maybe this was a new behaviour emerging. Even then I though a lot more than your average Avenger. When I got into town, I looked for the trail. Not hard to find. One of em got hit pretty bad by the town sheriff and his Magnum. Five .357 rounds in the chest'll hurt anything, even a 9 foot tall wolfman. So I followed a trail of blood thru the sewers, leading to the outflow just outside town. I remember sometime during that trek I got to thinking how normal it seemed to me to be wandering through a sewer at 11:52 PM. Struck me as funny. Everyone else at home watching leno while I wade through that nights dinner. I finally exit the sewers and surprise surprise the trail heads to the woods. Why cant these furballs ever do there healing in hospitals instead of some isolated corner of the darkest forest they can find? Seriously. If any one knows tell me.

Slammer22: sorry

Gungrrl21:uhuh

Icequeen: nope

Mrgone:damn. Anyway, I wander through the forest looking for the changers. Now, this is a rookie mistake if there ever was one. You don't follow a wolf into the woods for the same reason you don't fight a vamp in its lair. You're giving the monster the homecourt advantage. But I was young and stupid, and though I thought a lot it was never about practical stuff. So I charge into the woods and promptly get lost.

Icequeen: don't be too embarased. Weve all been there

Mrgone: thanx, but theres no excuse for idiocy on that scale. I was lucky though, the beasties were preoccupied and didn't notice me. I was able to creep up behind em. Now as we all know, you don't just rush into a gaggle of werewolves, you watch and wait and plan. So I watched and I waited. And what I saw

Gungrrl21: well don't just leave us hangin. What was it?

Mrgone: I saw the changers sitting in a circle crying their eyes out. Some of em were human, others were wolves, the rest were in that monsterous wolf-man form. All crying, wailing fit to be beat a wraith. I was so shocked I stopped looking where I was going, and slipped on some gravel. Slid right into the middle of their little circle. So there I am, right in the middle of a circle of six emotionally wraught werewolves. Not the ideal scenario for a successful hunt. Then something weird happened. Oe of the ones in monster-mode walks slowly up to me and shifts back to human. It turns from a nine foot tall furry mass of claws, muscle and teeth to a five foot four, slender, dirty-blonde woman. A NAKED five foot four, slender, dirty-blonde woman.

Iamsam11: Why cant my Hunts ever turn out that way?

Mrgone: You im ignoring. She walks up to me, slowly, and sez 'Hunter, I know why you are here. What you think we have done.'. I answer 'oh, so it wasn't you that attacked the town and killed four people? Let me guess it was a DIFFERENT group of slavering monsters, right?'. Admidttedly pissing em off probably wasn't a good ide, but I was scared and desperate to cover up that fact. She just nodded, though and said in that same gentle voice "No it was us. But we had cause. Come look".

Slammer22: Yeah the Changers always claim they're the good guys, fighting to save the world. That's one reason I think they can be saved from evil.

Mrgone: don't know about that. She lead me to this clearing, where a pair of monster-forms were lying down, nursing pups. The pups were in human, wolf or monster form, but were all mutants. One had a third eye, another a hunched back, a third had a withered right arm. She leans in, real close, and whispers "you see now the problem when Garou mates with garou. Most tribes would kill such metee but not the Children of Gaia. We love all of our children. That is why we did what we did."

Mrgone: Well now I was interested. I mean, how often is one of the enemy willing to tell you a bit about why they're doing whatever the fuck it is theyre doing? Besides I was outnumbered six-to-one, and outclassed by a factor of at least SIXTY-to-one, so why not play along?

Gungrrl21: Uh, lemme see. Maybe cause…theyre MONSTERS!

Icequeen: Quiet girl. I know mister gone, and hes one cold canny sonuvabitch. If thered been a way to take em, he'd be the one to find it.

Mrgone: Thanx, I think. Anyway I ask, real polite-like, "what the fuck are you talking about?". Like I said young and stupid. Anyway, she points to four dead furballs, obviously all mommas. She sez "one of your people, the city dwellers, killed our packmates and stole our children. He intends to corrupt them for the worm ive no doubt".

Mrgone: now I don't believe for a second that a worm of some sort is the cause of all this, but I take a look. These furballs are dead by gunshot wound, right enough. Big ass cannon from the looks of things, maybe with exploding bullets. At first I thought some hunter had beat me here and made some of the beasties pay for what they did, but I notice the bodies're old. Like a few weeks ago! Attacks had only started last week, and so obviously the killing and kidnapping had been beforehand.

Icequeen: So? Furballs aint fairies. Most fairies're safe enuff, but furballs kill eople all the fucking time. More dead the better.

Mrgone: My first thoughts exactly. Only, I got to thinking. What if someone busted into MY home, shot up MY pals, kidnapped MY pals kids? Id be fighting mad myself, and so would any of us! So, how can Ibe pissed at furballs for goin nuts. Then I think a bit more. Assuming the babies/pups/cubs/whatever were newborns, mabe they hadnt gone nuts at all. A hospital'd be the logical first choice, cuz the things'd need care so soon after birth. The orphanage wouldnt question a few kids showin up, or not as much a s other places would, anyway. I figured the furballs had been telling the truth, they were looking for their kids. Only way to really stop em would be to find the things and bring em home.

Mrgone: Now I know what yall are thinkoing. Furball trackers couldn't find em what chance does a mere human have? Well a lot really. Furballs maybe able to smell a needle in a haystack, but they know jack shit about investigation. Which the perp probably knew, meaning he may have been sloppy So, my odds werent bad.

Mrgone: I give it thought. Explosive rounds're expensive and traceable as we Hunters know all too well. So, if I can check local gun shop records, I should be able to dig up some suspects. More, judging by the way the guys shot, Id guess military training. Most likely mercs, which means someone rich. I tell the furballs this. The leader consults the others (I guess, all I heard was grunts and growls) and sez "if you find the one who did this we will exact vengeance"

Mrgone: I sez no. I explain, whoever did this deserves a chance to explain himself, and the wolves probably wont give him that. They argue but I point out that without me, their chances of finding the kids before they get moved is slim to none. So they agree. I find the badguy, they clear out the mercs, I let him talk. And then we see whats what.

Mrgone: Investigation was easy. The guy really didn't think anyone even slightly competent'd be looking for him. Cant blame him, really. The wolves told me there search had begun in the woods, then into the sewers, then the hospital and the orphanage. If the kids had wandered off this would be a good way to find em, but not when they've been kidnapped. He'd ordered his ammo from a local store, and paid off the owner to keep quiet. Course, all the cash in the world wont buy someones silence when hes being threatened by a furball in monster mode. He told us the guy called himself Alistair Johanson, and was staying at a big rented house in town. To make sure he didn't blab to the cops, I poured a quarter bottle of whiskey down his throat, and poured some on his clothes. He called the cops, hed be arrested for drunk and disorderly, and no oned ever believe him.

Mrgone: Now we cant go in yet. Scouts're sent in to eye the place, and I download plans from the building inspectors private files. Learn to hack kiddies! As we wait, the furries tell about themselves. I didn't understand much, but I did get that theyre in some kinda war, and humans are considered to be misguided pawns of the enemy. I got to like some of em, in the two days we waited. Seems they aint innately evil, just fanatics. Some are pretty damned good people.

Mrgone: We scope the house. Mercs on guard, armed with machine guns. I figured frontal assault wasn't an option. Wrong. The wolves charge in, sweeping the guards aside like they were nothing at all. I hear screams, gunshots, howls, and all kindsa horrible shit from inside. I wait. Eventually, things get quiet, and the boss beastie comes out, in all her naked human glory. "it is done, the man who stole our pups is within"

Gungrrl21: You let em kill a bunch of humans! You did nothing while monsters killed people!

Mrgone: You ever work with mercenaries girl? Most of em barely qualify as human. Anyway, theyre all kidnappers at the least, and probably murderers too, so why should I sweat myself saving their sorry hides?

Anyway I walk in. Place is covered in lood, talking wall to wall gore. In the center is this fat guy, sweating. Hes white, middle-aged, scarred and well dressed. I take one look at him and I think 'russian mob. High up, but not the boss'

Mrgone: Before I can even oen my mouth this guy starts pleading with me. Says hes onto money; BIG money. The things he took from the beasties would e retrained as legbreakers;worth a fortune on the blackmarker. Own your own werewolf; turn em loose on your rivals. He kept on but I wasn't listening. This son of a bitch ahd damn near sparked a war between Hunters and beasties, had murdered (by then I did think of it as murder) four beings who had done him no harm. Worst of all, he hadnt done this for a cause, or revenge, or anything like that. Hed just been doing it for the money. At least the monsters have their reasons. Leeches need blood to survive, furballs have their crusade to save the world, ghosts are just trying to make things right. But this bastard just wanted a bit morefilthy blood money!

Mrgone: I don't know why I said what came next. "I accuse you. I accuse you of murder, of kidnapping, and of attempting to corrupt the young. I accuse you of denying all the tenets of basic Humanity, in favor of unbridled greed. Do you have anything, anything at all, to say in your defense?". The guys eyes bug out of his head. His mouth I moving but no sound comes out. "Then here is my judgement" and I blow his brains out. I leave without a word to the beasties.

Mrgone: Took me a while to get over what id come to realize. Humans are like monsters in a lot of ways. We love, we hate, we do what we have to to survive.. Some of them're evil, sure, but not all of em, anymore than a few bad peole means all humans are bad. If theyre willing to leave us alone, why shouldn't we do the same? Hunters shouldn't be stirring the pot by killing everything that isnt human, just the ones that're threats. That is why im a Judge.

Icequeen: Huh

Slammer22:Nice going.

Gungrrl21:Its weird, but I guess it makes sense.

Mrgone: Bet your ass. If you're ever in Montreal, gimme a buzz kids. The Hunt is lonely sometimes, and we gotta hang together.

Mrgone has logged off

END


End file.
